Cloth repair kit



5, 19.69 v J. A. vn'ALE y 3,459,293

CLOTH REPAIR KIT Filed Jan. 22. 1968 :les *38 38 :s .6 l lull. ||5 l! n. r. u

JOE R. VITALE United States Patent O 2 Claims ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE A handy kit for use in repairing holes and tears in cloth material, particularly wearing apparel. Includes a plurality of cutter tools having progressively larger diameters, each tool being provided with a razor-sharp circular cutting edge. A hollow operating handle is provided at one end with a manual chuck device adapted to releasably retain the arbor of a selected cutter. The hollow handle has a removable cap and provides a storage compartment for the smallest and inte'rrnediately diametered cutter tools when these are not in use. The largest diametered cutter tool is normally retained in the chuck, and all of the cutting mechanism when not in use is stored in an elongated container provided with a removable closure cap.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION In recent years, a heat-pressure sensitive adhesive material has been developed for use in repairing clothing that had been damaged by holes burnt therein, or tears inflicted thereon. Ordinarily, repairs are made by trimming the edges of burnt holes, and cutting out the torn segments of the cloth by means of a scissors. A covering patch of the material referred to is cut from a sheet, deposited onto the cloth above the hole therein, whereupon a heated flat-iron is applied. This procedure is well known, and is not believed to require further elaboration. The heat-pressure sensitive material is produced in a variety of colors, and is commercially available in sheet form.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the instant invention to provide means wherewith to facilitate the above-described operations without the use of scissors. A more important obect of the present invention is the provision of means whereby a torn area of wearing apparel or a hole therein may be so repaired that the repair cannot be detected in the resultant appearance of said apparel.

In other words as will be more fully explained, the present invention contemplates the repair of for example, a hole burnt in a shirt or a pair of trousers, in consequence of inserting thereinto and so to speak blending into the hole surrounding material, a segment of` identical cloth whereof the shirt or trousers are made. By means of employing the cutter tools included in the kit of this invention such an insert would be cut from a portion of the apparel that would not be visible when worn.

Thus, in the case of a shirt, the insert could be cut from a region of the shirt tail, whereas in the case of trousers, the insert could be cut from the excess material usually found about the rear seam. In womens apparel, the socalled broad seams present readily available surplus material that may be utilized.

The invention is illustrated on a sheet of drawings that accompanies this specification, and a more comprehensive understanding of the features and advantages thereof may be had from the detailed description to follow with reference to said drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIGURE l is a top plan view of a cloth repair kit cornprising the present invention;

3,459,293 Patented Aug. 5, 1969 ice FIGURE 2 is a vertical sectional View, partly in elevation, taken on the line 2-2 of FIGURE l;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary enlarged vertical sectional View, partly in elevation, illustrating in more detail the structure of the manually operable clutch device included in the present invention;

FIGURE 4 is a side elevational View of an exemplary plurality of differently diametered cutter tools contemplated for inclusion in the kit of the present invention, each of said tools having an identical arbor;

FIGURE 5 is a view similar to FIGURE 4, the tools however being shown in vertical section;

FIGURE 6 is a horizontal sectional view taken on the line 6 6 of FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 7 is a view demonstrating the beginning of a circular patch severence operation from a surplus piece of clothing material;

FIGURE 8 is a plan view of the patch resultant from completion of the FIGURE 7 operation;

FIGURE 9 is a view demonstrating the beginning of a severance operation relatively to a piece of heat-pressure sensitive adhesive material;

FIGURE l0 is a plan view of the circular cutout resultant from completion of the FIGURE 9 operation;

FIGURE ll is a diagrammatical view in section, suggesting repair procedure prior to heated flat-iron treatment: and

FIGURE l2 is a fragmentary view of a portion of wearing apparel that has been repaired in accordance with the concepts of the present invention.

With reference to FIGURES 1 and 2, the' kit of the present invention is there shown in its not-in-use status, being generally designated by the numeral 14. Included in said kit is a preferably plastic tubular housing or container 16 having a bottom wall 18 and an open upper end shown closed by a frictionally applicable cap 20. Disposed against the bottom wall 18 of the container 16 is a disc 22 of felt or similar material.

Numeral 24 designates generally a handle element molded of plastic material so as to have formed therein an elongated circular cavity or chamber 26 having a fiat bottom wall 28 whereon a disc 30 of felt or similar material is disposed as shown. The upper end of the handle chamber 26 is open, but as shown, is closed by means of a suitable frictionally applied end cap 32.

Integrated into the preferably tapered lower end portion 34 of the handle 24, is the supporting stem 36 of a conventional chuck device 38 that depends therebelow. As illustrated particularly in FIGURE 3, the chuck device 38 includes a diametrically split and externally threaded member 40 associated with an internally threaded manually rotatable nut 42. The opposed split or slot formations are each designated 41. The diameter of the bore 44 in the member 40 corresponds to that of the arbors integral with the cutting tools to be described, and the lower end of said member terminates in an externally tapered portion 46. The nut 42 has a complemental internal tapered portion 48, so that proper rotation of said nut will serve to rigidly clamp an arbor slidably positioned within the bore 44, as should be understood.

With attention directed especially to FIGURES 4 and 5, the present invention contemplates the inclusion of at least three differently diametered cutter tools designated generally by the numerals 50, 52 and 54. Each cutter tool includes a main body 56 and a therewith integral upwardly projecting shank or arbor 58. Each arbor 58 incorporates a pair of diametrically opposite tongue or tang segments 59 adapted to enter the diametrically opposite slots 41 when a cutter tool is inserted into the chuck device 3S. It will be observed that the arbors 58 are identical, each being diametered to have a sliding lit into the bore 44 of said chuck device 38. Each tool body 56 terminates at the bottom in a circular cutting edge 60 that is precision ground and honed so as to be razor-sharp.

With attention directed to FIGURE 2, it will be observed that when the kit 14 is not in use, the largest diametered cutter tool 50 is clamped within the chuck device 38 with its razar-sharp circular cutting edge 60 disposed against the felt disc 22. The disc 22 obviates injury to said cutting edge when, with the cap 20 removed, the composite assembly including the handle 24, the chuck device 38, and the cutter tool 5G are dropped into the container 16 from above. It will also be observed that when properly entered, the razor-sharp cutting edge 60 of the cutter tool 52 engages against the felt disc 30, whereas the similar edge of the cutter tool 54 is suspended freely. Thus, all of the cutting edges 60 are protected against injury at times when the kit 14 is not being used.

USE

The so-called iron-on patch technique is believed to be well understood. Assuming for example that a hole had accidentally been burnt into an article of wearing apparel, the damaged portion of cloth defining the hole would be trimmed by a pair of scissors. Thereupon a patch larger than the hole would be scissors-cut from a sheet of the heat-pressure sensitive adhesive material, placed over the hole and iron thereonto. The adhesive material is manufactured in a variety of colors. Assuming that a tear had been inflicted on an article of wearing apparel, repair would be effected in similar fashion. Obviously, considerable dexterity is required in the trimming of holes with a pair of scissors.

The kit of the present invention includes means adapted not only to dispense with the use of scissors, but at the same time to facilitate a neater resulting appearance in the garment by repairing the hole with normally not visible surplus material cut from the garment itself. It thus also follows that the necessity of having on hand variously colored sheets of the adhesive material is eliminated, as will be apparent from the explanation below.

Referring now to FIGURES 7, 9 and 11, a at surfaced element is indicated A, this element being representative of a table top, a breadboard, ,a piece of cardboard or the like, and so on as should be understood. Illustrated in FIGURE 11 as disposed on the element A, is what will assumed to be a portion of trouser leg cloth B whereinto a hole smaller than the hole C appearing therein had been burnt. With the arbor 58 of the cutter tool 52 locked in the clutch 38 as in FIGURE 7, the operating handle 24 had been manually pressed downwardly and rotated in order to cut out the hole C about the former smaller burnt hole.

In FIGURE 7, BB represents a fragment of cloth identical with the cloth B, said fragment having been removed for example from the surplus material usually found adjacent the rear seam of a pair of trousers. Downward manual pressure applied to the handle 24 as suggested by the broken line arrow e followed by a rotation of said handle, will cause the razor-sharp edge 60 of the cutter tool 52 to penetrate the cloth BB whereby to produce the circular patch BBB of FIGURE 8.

It is noted at this point, that inasmuch as the arbor 58 of the tool 52 is positively clamped within the chuck device 38, the downward pressure manually applied to the operating handle 24 accompanied by slight manual rotation thereof insures complete severance. It is also noted that inasmuch as the hole C and the patch BBB have been produced by means of the same cutter tool 52, insertion of the patch into the hole C as suggested by the broken line arrow f in FIGURE l1, will result in all visible traces of the hole C being obliterated.

FIGURE 9 demonstrates a severance operation relatively to a portion of heat-pressure sensitive adhesive material D whereby to produce the iron-on segment DD appearing in FIGURE 9. For this operation, the cutter tool 52 will have been replaced in the chuck device by the larger-diametered tool 50 as should be manifest.

Assuming that the patch BBB had been entered into the hole C, the segment DD would be positioned thereover as suggested by the broken line arrows g, whereupon heated atiron pressure would be applied in the customary manner. Assuming that the trousers were being worn following the repair operations, the resulting appearance is more or less schematically portrayed in FIGURE 12. As there shown, the patch BBB will have been blended into the surrounding cloth in such fashion that only minute inspection could detect its presence, whereas the segment DD is hidden from view.

The foregoing description and the drawings are believed to be adequate for a comprehensive understanding of the instant invention. For the repair of smaller holes, the cutter tools S4 and 52 would be employed in similar fashion as should be understood. Obviously, the chamber 26 may also serve in a storage capacity for additional cutter tools.

It should of course be understood that the structural details of the kit 14 may be modied somewhat without departing from the main concepts of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. In a cloth repair kit, the combination including:

an operating handle having an elongated circular chamber formed therein, said chamber having a tlat bottom wall and being open at its upper end, said bottom wall having a disc offelt or like material disposed against the upper face thereof;

a manually operable chuck device rigid with and projecting perpendicularly below the lower end of said handle;

three cutter tools of a progressively larger diameter, each tool including a main body that terminates at the bottom in a precision ground and honed razorsharp circular cutting edge;

an arbor integral therewith projecting upwardly from the main body of each cutter tool, all of said arbors being identical for engagement of a selected cutter tool by the clutch device;

a frictionally applicable cap for closing the upper end of the handle chamber;

an elongated container, open at its upper end having a disc of felt or like material disposed against the upper face of the bottom wall thereof; and

a frictionally applicable cap member for closing said open upper end of the container.

2. In a cloth repair kit, the combination recited in claim 1 wherein the arbor of the cutter tool having the largest diameter is normally engaged within the chuck device and said tool rests upon the disc of felt disposed against the bottom wall of said container; and wherein the cutter tool having the smallest diameter and the cutter tool having an intermediate diameter are normally stored within said handle chamber, the tool having the intermediate diameter resting upon the disc of felt disposed against the bottom wall of said chamber, the tool having the smallest diameter resting atop the arbor of the therebelow tool having the intermediate diameter.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 903,093 11/1908 Howe 145-62 X 1,109,040 9/1914 Carter 145--64 2,325,943 8/ 1943 Fletcher ,206-16 FOREIGN PATENTS 969,519 9/ 1964 Great Britain.

MARTHA L. RICE, Primary Examiner U.S. C1. XR. -62, 120 

